Blog on the rich and poor division in mexico
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/20/world/income-gap-in-mexico-grows-and-so-do-protests.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
The division between the rich in the poor; according to the article that is just read in the New York Times, is very noticeable to the point that 10% of the extremely rich in mexico own about 40% of the wealth. then it jumps down to the extremely poor in mexico, which only own about 16% of the wealth. The labor force is divided as well as the country in a way that basically the better jobs are in the north while the south holds all the farming and rural areas. One thing that both of these groups share in common is that they rely on the american economy in order to survive. All of this has been off and on ever since the revolution, which is a strong indication that there is corruption that leads to the strong division between the two groups. They each have a reason to fight with each other, and one thing is for sure, it is all because of the economy and the distribution of power and all that surrounds it, from both tangible and intangible assets.
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Sunday, September 22, 2013
national security essay
|
America’s National Security: Outside
or Inside Threats?
What is National Security and the
purpose of it in this country that we call America? What are the factors that
contribute to the making of this “theory”? People of this country that we call
America have different standpoints on where our national security should be
focused on and where the threats of our country come from. Two of the clearest
points that this country usually sides with is outside threats; for example,
other countries that implement terrorism in their people and can potentially
bring a form of attack on this country; and inside threats, social problems
that can in the future affect the overall standing of this country in the
future. Even though the most logical
idea to agree with is that outside threats will affect this country, the
reality is that that it is just a diversion for the inside threats that the
government has to take care of and in the long run is what affects the country
as a whole in many aspects such as the economy and among other things. The
government should focus on the inside threats that this country has because in
the long run that is what makes the country look good , it stabilizes the
economy, and most importantly, it will go toward the right path to have a
prosperous America in the near future.
America is viewed as the most prosperous
country in this world due to the fact that most people around the world have
the ideology of the “American dream”. But what is the American dream? Is it
being part of that 1 percent that earns $380,000 or more, or is it earning
$33,000 or less working a minimum wage job like jack in the box? Is it having a
nice car, a somewhat good-looking house in the suburbs, and a nice family? Who
knows what it means to live that American dream. In reality none of the
American dream is true in an average family, only in Disney movies because the
reality is that a lot of homes since 2007 began to get foreclosed and also a
lot of car loans couldn’t be paid off due to the large amounts of interest they
had that it was ridiculous. All of this caused a recession in the United States
and until this date it just began to go downhill that it moved a lot of numbers
down that now there’s a new type of “poverty” that describes the people who
lost everything because of the recession. Now until this date the poverty rate
of this country is of about 15.1 percent, and who knows where this is going to.
The fact is that no matter what type of situation you live in education is the
key to make a society prosper.
Education in the United States is
essential because it takes the role of freedom, because you in theory have an
equal opportunity to study in this country and it’s your choice to accept the
education or not and to go against it. But why is it that the education centers
are in bad condition and lack the latest technology while others are the
complete opposite? Where is the equal opportunity? And not only are that, the
majority of children studying in these centers impoverished to the point that
they can’t do some homework assignments because they lack the technology at
home to do it. We have to keep in mind that this world as it goes is becoming
so dependent in technology that it is a shame how this country that is great in
other people’s eyes can’t give the basic technology to 21.6% of the nation’s
future, which is believed that they live in poverty. Where is the help of the
government to these children if the point of making a strong national security
is to make the children feel secure of society’s economic and social struggles
first? And how can that happen if a large chunk of children are living through
them? Willie “J.R” Fleming, co-founder of the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign
said in an interview “our struggle is related to education, labor, and housing
cuts- all of these struggles are intertwined.”(pg 97) In order to reverse the
effect we need to analyze America’s social and economic struggles first and
then spread out, like the rock that is thrown at the water and
the waves spread out.
Obama gave a speech about Syria’s
struggles when it comes to social problems that they have with a group of
people and the government. Sure it is good to be informed about it, but why
does this have to reflect on this nations national security issue? Just like he
said in his speech referring to what the veteran wrote on his letter that was
sent to the president; “we should not be the world’s policemen”-Pres. Obama.
How does the gassing of children and innocent people reflect a hit on our
nation’s national security when we have nothing in this nation that correlates with
the issue that is happening in Syria? It’s not like our government would do something
of the sort to control people if Obama said in his speech that almost 98%of the
world is against using those types of weapons because they agreed on it. So why
is he saying that our national security should be focused on outside threats?
It just doesn’t make sense when the problem that is happening is that this nation’s
youth are suffering because the lack of educational opportunities and the new
type of poverty that is spreading throughout this nation’s cities and towns
that didn’t have any of the sort happening. We should be focusing on how to
bring poverty down and how to help the future of this country prosper, as
“poverty is 21st- century- style slavery…”(pg 103). We don’t want to
have that happening again, as the whole idea of the violence that led to the
eradication of slavery would not have any significance behind it. And that is
what national security should be focused on, to make sure every kid in this
country has the opportunity to deal with society’s problems and be able to fix
it without any violence if possible. And we want to minimize the relationships
that can lead to problems; or in other words, fix those relationships.
If we don’t start from the internal
problems and then go out, then it will almost be impossible to makes the
country look good in other peoples minds,
stabilize the economy, and most importantly, lead this country toward
the right path to have what we really want, a strong national security. The
government should make sure the children who are suffering here are taken care
of first before they get involved in another country. They have to keep that
mindset that if we don’t hurt you, then you don’t hurt us. We have to remember
that the children are the future, and with them lacking education, then how are
they supposed to deal with threats when they really need to? National security
is a multi-step process to handle it, and with one step at the
time, it can be accomplished.
Bibliography
"President Obama Address To The Nation On
Syria! - FULL SPEECH!! - 9/10/2013."YouTube. YouTube, 10 Sept.
2013. Web. 15 Sept. 2013.
Smiley, Tavis, and Cornel
West. The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto. New York:
Smiley, 2012. Print.
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Chapter 2 summary
|
Chapter 2 summary: The rich and the
rest of us
This chapter of the book tells us how the recession has impacted
different groups of society from people who are about to retire; like jack who
is still waiting on his pension, to the future of America, whom the author in
the book describes as the children. Also this chapter emphasizes the point that
various politicians of important caliber haven’t once embedded the word that
starts with the letter “P” in their speeches that they have made. The word that
starts with the letter “P” is poverty, which is an important issue that the
author is trying to make as a point because you can see various charts and
examples on how people of the different social classes have suffered in their
class due to the lack of funding such as education for the children and
retirement funds for the elderly. In fact, you can see that various people of
different social classes get bothered when they hear that poverty is going
around their neighborhood, which In theory shouldn't happen. But what is put special attention to is the
fact that various children are losing their chance of opportunity to prosper
due to the fact that their classrooms and homes are missing funds to support
the children education wise. The lack of technology and parental education is
what holds back a lot of the youth in the society of poor Americans. One example
of this is the little girl Chasity, who lives with her grandma who can’t help
her with her education due to the fact that the grandma can’t read nor write.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
topics that I find are interesting from the first three chapter of the book
1. The new definition of poverty in the united states and how and what led to it
2. the correlation of unemployment and the definition of poverty
2. the correlation of unemployment and the definition of poverty
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
My Ted talk response
|
Tedtalk on poverty and my response
Poverty is an important question that
comes up in all societies in the world. But the question that comes up always
is what exactly is poverty? And the other question that comes with it as a sub
question is how do we define it and what are the characteristics of it? Looking
at a couple of videos on Tedtalk, a nonprofit site in the internet that is
“devoted to ideas worth spreading”, I managed to come up as well as back up and
discard my view of what is poverty and also come up with an answer that perhaps
is able to answer the question. After browsing through some videos on the topic
of poverty, one particular one that caught my attention when I read the title
of the video was one titled Iqbal
Quadir: How mobile phones can fight poverty. The reason I found the title to be interesting
was because I saw the word mobile phone, which almost everybody in America has
as well as the word poverty. This video talks about how Iqbal Quadir is
a humanitarian who helps out with the poverty with his business GrameenPhone, a
phone company that serves in the poor country of Bangladesh. One key idea that
he emphasized in the discussion/ presentation that he made is the idea that
“connectivity leads to productivity”. He explained the concept of this and
after looking at the presentation, his logic did make sense. He said that Bangladesh gets more revenue
with his company than with the aid they get from the more powerful nations. His
presentation does seem reasonable and the numbers do seem to add up because I
have seen that happen in real life in México where I am from. Before, there
used to be no phone whatsoever, and now there is all that types of technology
like cell phones and house phones, there is a lot more activity happening and as
the guy calls it, a lot more “productivity” in the whole ranch as a whole. The
other video that really caught my attention was a video called Becky
Blanton: The year I was homeless, which talks about basically how from one day to another she became homeless
because in part she wanted to because she wanted to experiment and also because
she didn’t have a job. She called herself a “working homeless”, which is the
new term they came up with the trained professionals that lost their job due to
the recession. Then she said something like there is still other people that
are straight up homeless. The ones that straight up don’t have anything except
the money they get panhandling and the junk they collect from street garbage
can. One main idea that I got from these two videos is that poverty can be
characterized in many different groups such as the amount of income they have
as well as the social status and what society defines as “poor”. What we
consider as poor might now be the same if we say a person was in a different
country. For example, when I go to Mexico they consider me rich because due to
the fact that I’m well dressed and have a lot of money when I go over there,
when in reality I’m just as the same as them but just because the social norms
change. In the end I say that poverty is just a lifestyle that people
characterize in a different way. A person with a good car can still be poor but
just doesn’t reflect it. Also, that can happen the other way around. But in the
end, it all has to do with the society that you live in. These Tedtalks are
really interesting and also very informative cause it gives you different views
of what people consider as poor.
1st video:
2nd video:
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)